Fashion from Episode 10: Funky and Retro
by Karla Stevens

Hello Fashionistas and fans! Well this episode certainly heats up when Rebecca Bloom, Sandy Cohen's long ago love from college, turns up in the OC. In fact, my television set was dripping with chemistry. Whoo, sometimes love just never dies. It easily could have been a flashback to the seventies when she shows up at his door wearing a fuchsia sweater, grey cords and a poncho. And you certainly can't miss that fantastic fish necklace.

I picked up that necklace at Planet Blue on Montana one afternoon and I thought it was perfect for Rebecca. I made a quick phone call to Natalie Balker, the owner of the oh-so hot jewelry company Natalie B. and picked her brain about the piece. She maintains the fish necklaces were all the rage in the seventies, and like a lot of trends, went by the way side. She said it was certainly the kind of thing someone's college sweetheart might have handed over while Abba played softly in the background. It's amazing how a piece like the fish necklace can look fresh and hot all over again, she said. There's nothing like one of those necklaces with a little tank top or a fitted t-shirt. It's totally sexy.

Turns out she started her jewelry line about five years ago and it has grown ten fold. Her specialties include one of a kind vintage pieces that she re-works. She has pickers culling the flea markets and knocking on the dealer's doors to find the most special and unusual statement making pieces. A recent favorite that Cameron Diaz picked up a vintage double gold leaf necklace with a heart and leaf pendant. She's crazy about double and triple strands of anything and the more unusual the better. I asked her a few of her favorite tips when wearing her jewelry. Number one, throw out the turtleneck, she said laughing. My jewelry looks great with a really simple neck revealing top, she said. Really try to keep it simple because the jewelry stands on its own.

So what's going to get really hot? She claims this spring it's all about the locket. My suggestion to you, pick up a Natalie B. locket while they are still in stock. And if you're low on dough, a locket is the sort of thing that's pretty easy to find in your Mom or Grandmother's jewelry box or at a local flea market. Who knows? Maybe we'll see Rebecca wearing a locket one of these days, and I bet you can guess where it might have come from.